“In many ways, we’re tackling the service that requires the most trust in someone’s life,” says UrbanSitter CEO Lynn Perkins. “If companies can replicate what we’ve done in other sectors, they’ll knock it out of the park.”

So how did UrbanSitter pull this off? How did they build a product that convinces parents that strangers can safely watch their children?

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Identify What Your Users Need

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“The best way to do this is to first identify your ideal user,” says Perkins. “Our ideal user is a parent who has a somewhat urgent need for a sitter. It can be that broad, but you need to know that profile first so you can determine what information to show them.”

She goes on to say, “People might have a variety of needs, but you should try to figure out what those top three scenarios are and answer those first, as fast as you can. That’s what will make people feel like you’re the most relevant product for their search.”

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Borrow Trust Wherever You Can

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“When people see that other parents from a group they belong to or respect have used a sitter, that’s compelling information,” says Perkins. “And when we launch in a new city, these groups are really important because they’ve already established trust. We’re borrowing brand credibility from them so new users will trust us too.”

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Don’t Make Ratings Your Only Metric

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Let People Be Human

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Marry Quality and Influence

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“We knew if we were going to succeed, we needed people to have not just good but great experiences using the service,” says Perkins. To assemble its initial batch of caretakers, UrbanSitter conducted rigorous interviews and made sure only the best of the best were on the platform to start. It’s second step: Introducing these sitters to incredibly connected parents in the area.

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Give Users Control

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Pinpoint Decision Drivers

“Once you’ve defined your ideal users and developed basic functionality, it’s time to get even more precise about how people decide to use your service,” Perkins says. “You want to list all of the concerns they could possibly have and then the data you’ll use to respond to all of those concerns. That’s how you engender trust on an even deeper level.”

For instance, people might believe your service is good, but still might be wary if they haven’t heard of anyone using it, or if they don’t have any friends who have used it before. In this case, you can use data to your advantage. “It builds a lot of credibility when we can say X number of parents from your child’s school or your mom’s group have used UrbanSitter.” They can start to visualize users just like themselves being satisfied with the service.

Figuring out what these data points are shouldn’t be a guessing game either. Take strategic opportunities to ask people what they care about and what changed their minds.

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Make Life Easy, Not Just Your Service

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Invest in Content Marketing

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Turn Users Into Ambassadors

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